Charlotte (Marked Heart #2) (30 page)

Trace was shaking and white as a sheet as
he scrambled to his feet and sprinted away.

Amazed at what had just taken place in front of her, Charlotte stared at Emerson.

With a soft smile and warm caring eyes, he asked, "Are you alright?"

Shaking her head
, she walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him. As Emerson hugged her back, he was softer than she would have thought and warm.

Keeping her in his protective arms, Emerson shared, "There are some people who are able to love blind. However, most people need to be reassured they're not making a horrible mistake. Not everyone is able to believe someone's side of things without all the information."

Charlotte
held onto him tighter, nodding into his chest before looking up at him.

With a smirk on her face, she questioned, "They will never find you?"

Emerson let go of her as he laughed, "I believe I already shared that Roberts is not the most upstanding last name around."

Raising her eyebrows at him, she remarked, "Powerful and infamous."

"Well, it certainly put Mr. Delgado in his place."

Charlotte laughed out loud before it occurred to her there was something she needed to say.

With a sincere expression, Charlotte said, "Emerson, thank you for adopting me."

Emerson's eyes filled with tears as
he scooped Charlotte up in another warm and loving hug.

37

Declaration

It was seriously the night from hell. After leaving the Roberts
', as if that wasn't a nightmare in and of itself, he was finally man enough but it turned out Charlotte wasn't the woman he thought she was. Or maybe she was. He really wasn't sure about anything anymore. All he knew was that he still missed her. The fact that she was just ready to pick up where she left off before they were together didn't change that. Seeing her wearing that thick lacquer lipstick because her douchebag never saw how beautiful she really was, made it worse.

Once he got back to The Dog House to open up,
a pipe in the kitchen burst causing water to rush everywhere. When they got that under control, one of the draft spigots broke off in his hand and shot beer all over him. Then, the wire shelf in the storage room broke off of the wall and knocked him down, covering him in an avalanche of bar supplies.

When Jackson showed up, he told Auggie to take the rest of the night off.
The only plus side of the evening was that his lip finally stopped bleeding.

Stepping out of the shower, he was glad
to be home a few hours early. He was going to drink a beer, relax in his chair for a while and try to put this horrible day behind him. He dried off, pulled his boxer's on, looked in his bottom drawer for pajama bottoms and realized he forgot to wash clothes this week. With a slight laugh, Auggie shook his head at himself. What difference did it make, he was by himself anyway.

Making his way into the kitchen, Auggie grabbed a beer, popped the cap off and headed to the living room to relax. He had the feeling of being struck by lightening again
, but it was for a different reason this time.

Once the shock of seeing Charlotte sitting in his chair wore off, he set his beer down and griped, "What the hell?"

"Why did you apologize to me?" she snapped at him.

Thinking she had some nerve, he sarcastically replied, "Because I'm a grown up and I felt it was necessary."

As she stood up out of his chair wearing
tiny hot pink shorts, a thin white t-shirt and the peacock bracelet he gave her, Auggie wished he was wearing more than a pair of boxers.

Giving the bottom of her shirt a little tug, she questioned, "Why would you go to all the trouble of saying you're sorry, if you were just going to turn around and do the same damn thing?"

Irritated, he barked, "Look here woman, I'm not the one that just picked up where I left off before you."

"Neither am I," she griped at him.

Thinking to himself 'Unbelievable', Auggie shook his head, saying, "If it looks like it, that must be what it is. Right?"

Charlotte glared at him before asking, "Is that a question?"

Running
his hand over his face in frustration, Auggie wondered what kind of crazy ass game this was that she was trying to play with his head.

Deciding to play along, he replied, "Alright, I'm game. Was it what it looked like?"

Holding her head high, she stated, "No."

Standing there baffled, he asked, "What was he doing there?"

Rolling her eyes at him, Charlotte replied, "He came to escort me back."

"You're not going to marry him?"

Shaking her head while giving him a stupid look, she informed, "Why would I marry him when I'm in love with you?"

Auggie's whole world came crashing down on him in an instant.

Every single thought, feeling and moment he had with Charlotte surged through him as he walked up to her. Placing his hands on the sides of her face, he kissed her like he never had before. The way he should have been kissing her all along. Without restraint. Like she was truly his because she was and he sure as hell belonged to her.

Without hesitation, Charlotte wrapped her arms around his neck as she kissed him back.

Picking up where he left off before his ignorant mistake earlier, Auggie said, "Lotte, I swear to you, I will never let anything come between us again."

"I love you," she whispered in response.

Between his promise and her
words, they were declaring themselves to each other and Auggie was determined to make it official. After breathing her in as he kissed her, he hoisted her high in the air and threw her over his shoulder.

Setting her back on her feet next to his bed, there was so much he wanted to say and do, he wasn't sure where to start. He
r face was flush, and his breath heavy as he stood in front of her.

"I want all of you," he whispered, running his hands down her sides.

As she nodded, he wrapped the hem of her shirt around his fingers.

Seeing the resistance in her eyes, he reminded, "I gave you my word."

"That's not..." she started to argue before he softly kissed her, swearing, "Nothing between us."

With a firm hold on the bottom of her shirt, he
leaned his forehead against hers.

"There's no more you or me. Only us from this moment on," Auggie whispered before placing another soft kiss against her lips.

Charlotte slowly nodded as she looked into his eyes.

Carefully removing her shirt, he glanced down at her and smiled. She was insanely beautiful, scars and all. Pulling her all the way against him, he slid his hands from her hips up her bare back. Running his fingers back down to her hips gave him the same feeling as the first time he kissed her. There was not a woman in the world like her and all her scars said about her were that she was one of a kind. Auggie felt Charlotte tense in his arms as he realized there was something he forgot to say.

"I love you," he swore before pulling her down onto the bed with him.

It wasn't about showing her the kind of man he was anymore because without her he didn't feel like a man at all. She made him the man he was.

~

Falling asleep, completely naked in Auggie's arms
, Charlotte felt complete in every way. The man that she was in love with was now asleep beside her. He had been greedy with her in such an insatiable way he allowed her to be fulfilled over and over. Her man, Augustus Caffrey was in love with her, all of her. Even the parts that she, herself had trouble accepting. Smiling to herself as she drifted off, she felt at home in the arms of her scruffy bartender.

38

Attached

Rolling over in bed, Charlotte started to smile the
n frowned, realizing she was by herself. Peeking over the side of the bed, she saw her clothes from last night. She slid out of bed and grabbed her panties off of the floor, pulling them on before picking her shirt and shorts up off of the floor.

"What are you doing?" Auggie questioned from the doorway.

Turning to see him holding a plate of waffles in one hand and a glass of juice in the other, she answered, "Getting dressed."

Auggie looked at her like she just ruined his day.

"Why?"

Shaking her head at him, she laughed, "Did you expect me to stay naked all day?"

Nodding his head vigorously, he blurted, "Yea."

Charlotte rolled her eyes, saying, "You can't be serious."

Placing the waffles and juice on top of his dresser, he made his way over to her.

"Oh, I'm serious," he assured, running his hands across her breasts.

The side of her mouth curled into a smile as she replied, "Well, Mr. Serious, I'm going to go brush my teeth and get dressed."

After giving her a quick kiss on the lips, he flopped down on his bed.

There was no way Charlotte would have believed she could be this happy. Almost giddy, she hurried to the hallway bathroom, quickly pulled her shirt and shorts on, brushed her teeth and washed her face before heading back to Auggie's bedroom.

Picking the plate of waffles up off of his dresser on the way to his bed, she confirmed, "These are for me?"

Nodding, Auggie placed his hands behind his head as he laid back, asking, "You're staying, right?"

"I was thinking about it," she replied, winking at him as she took a bite of her waffles.

"You wanna stay here?" he questioned.

Placing her waffles on his night stand, Charlotte answered, "I never liked the idea of living with someone unless we're married."

"You wanna get married?"

"Umm, I don't know how to answer that," she replied with an uncomfortable smile.

Auggie gave her a confused look before shaking his head correcting, "Oh, I wasn't proposing."

Raising her eyebrows, Charlotte nodded as she glanced off to the side.

"Well, I just made this awkward as hell," he shared.

Leaning over him, Charlotte kissed his lips.

"We can have this conversation another day."

Nodding, he pulled her on top of him, asking, "So, what do you wanna do?"

Giving him another kiss, she replied, "Take a shower."

Charlotte raised up
to climb off of him when he pulled her back down. Holding her tight against him, he stood up with her in his arms, kissing her all the way to the shower.

~

Standing in his driveway, Auggie watched Charlotte drive away. He didn't want her to leave. In fact, he had planned on trying to keep her there, naked, all day. When Penny called to tell him Sophia went into labor, Charlotte thought it was best to go home and assured him she would see him at the hospital later. Shaking his head as he climbed in his truck, he laughed to himself, thinking 'Leave it to my family to ruin naked sex day with Charlotte'.

The hospital waiting room
was pretty intense. While everyone was waiting for Sophia to have her baby, Sarah was ignoring Auggie and Ren was giving Sarah dirty looks for ignoring Auggie because of Charlotte.

Braden who
at this point looked like a red headed plum after the fight at the bar, was also getting the silent treatment from Sarah and Penny was 'in trouble' too, simply for being a part of what her brothers had done. No one said a word for two hours until Ailin walked in, announcing that Keylee Marie Caffrey had arrived.

Auggie decided to hang back in the waiting room after Ren basically shoved
Ailin out of the way to beat Sarah to see the first grandkid on both sides.

Jackson watched Ren and Sarah practically race down the hall as he laughed, "I'll just wait here then."

"Women and babies," Auggie remarked, shaking his head as Braden and Penny laughed.

Ailin appeared startled as he said, "Maybe I should have mentioned they took Keylee to clean her up and moved Sophia to a different room."

The waiting room e
rupted in laughter.

They all took turns visiting the new edition to the Caffrey family.
When Auggie took his turn to meet his niece, Penny was smiling at them from the chair next to Sophia's bed. He carefully held Keylee in his arms, rocking her as she slept.

"She looks like Ailin with brown hair," Auggie shared before glancing at his brother saying, "You did good man but I think she's too pretty to be one of us."

Sophia smiled as Penny blurted, "Excuse you," with a laugh.

"You hear that little girly, your Aunt Penny's already jealous of you."

Rolling her eyes at him, Penny hopped up from her chair, saying, "Okay, it's my turn again," holding her arms out to hold Keylee.

Auggie carefully handed her over to Penny, asking, "Where did Jacks go?"

Sophia looked at Ailin before answering, "I think he's trying to keep mama away from your mom." As Auggie gave her a questioning look, she shared, "Charlotte's here with her family."

~

Standing outside the waiting room, Charlotte congratulated Ren and Jackson after Amila and Emerson headed to see the baby.

Swatting Charlotte on the arm, Ren fussed, "I can't believe you didn't tell me."

"About?" she questioned, pretending not to know.

Raising an eyebrow at her, Ren said, "I don't know. Let's ask him," pointing past Charlotte.

As
Charlotte turned, Auggie made his way beside her. Sliding his hand around hers, he leaned to her cheek and kissed her.

Smiling at Ren, she replied, "Oh, that."

Auggie appeared confused, asking, "What?"

Ren and Charlotte laughed as Jackson just shook his head with a wide smile.

"Can I steal her away for a minute," Auggie asked.

Both Ren and Jackson smiled while nodding as they
walked into the waiting room to sit with the other Roberts' kids.

Leading Charlotte around the corner by her hand, Augg
ie pointed to the door marked 'Stairwell'. Opening the door, he let her step in first before double checking to make sure no one saw them go in.

Pulling her against him, Auggie whispered, "Wanna sneak out of here?"

"I sure do but things are tense enough without us bailing on Sophia's baby day."

"And?"

Giving him a stupid look, she replied, "And? When your mom saw me, she held onto her cross pendant and said 'God be with me' like I'm the devil or something and Ren looked like she was fixing to throw down before Jackson's parents walked in."

Laughing, Auggie shared, "Welcome to another Caffrey family gathering."

"This is normal?"

"No, it's usually much worse," he assured.

Charlotte let out a laugh before pulling Auggie into a kiss.

Auggie's hands instinctively moved to her hips as he guaranteed, "After dinner, you're staying with me."

"We're going to dinner?" she asked with a smile.

Shaking his head, Auggie replied, "Emerson said I was having dinner with y'all tonight."

"He invited you to dinner?" she questioned, excited by Emerson's invitation.

With a slight laugh, he said, "No, he told me I was."

Rolling her eyes, she wondered how well dinner was going to go before a mischievous expression formed.

"How brave are you?"

Tugging her closer, he asked, "What did you have in mind?"

"Depends, you scared?"

The door to the stairwell swung open causing them both to jump.

Ren shook her head at them as she peered into the stairwell, fussing, "You two come out and behave yourselves."

With a heavy
sigh, Charlotte took Auggie's hand leading him out of the stairwell.

Continuing to shake her head at them, Ren walked up to Jackson and whispered something to him
that made him laugh out loud.

Turning to Charlotte, Ren informed, "Sophia wants you to come see Keylee."

Giving Ren a crazy look, she replied, "Umm, okay."

Auggie gave Charlotte a quick kiss before letting go of her hand.

As Ren led the way to Sophia's room, Charlotte heard Auggie say, "Can I talk to you a minute, Jacks."

Glancing back
, she watched Auggie and Jackson head in the opposite direction.

Hesitant, Charlotte followed Ren to Sophia's hospital room.

Sophia appeared exhausted as she looked up at Charlotte, asking, "Do you want to hold her?"

"Oh, no thanks," Charlotte replied with an uncomfortable smile.

"Mama, can you give us a minute?"

Ren kissed Sophia's forehead before gently brushing her fingers across Keylee's arm as she nodded.

As soon as the door closed behind Ren, Sophia looked at Charlotte, saying, "I'm a mom."

Wanting to laugh, Charlotte cleared her throat, agreeing, "Yep."

Nodding, Sophia shared, "I keep looking at her thinking... I just love her so much. I hope I'm a good mom."

"Well, I think if you love her that's a great start," Charlotte replied not sure what she was really looking for in this conversation.

With a loving sigh, Sophia gazed at Keylee as she said, "I don't know what to say except I'm sorry."

Trying not to appear as shocked as she truly was, Charlotte replied, "Umm, Thank you."

"I don't want to be friends with you but I don't see why we can't get along."

Charlotte smiled, saying, "The feeling is mutual," with a slight laugh.

"You know, Sarah was furious when she found out Ailin and I were seeing each other."

"Seriously?" Charlotte blurted.

Nodding, Sophia said, "Good luck. Will you send my mom back in?"

Making her way to the door, Charlotte turned to Sophia, saying, "Congratulations, Keylee is beautiful," before turning back and walking out of the hospital room.

When Charlotte stepped out of the room, Ren hugged her before going back in with Sophia. Jackson flashed a smile
, motioning for Charlotte to follow him. Thinking that was strange, she had never really spoken to Jackson before other than a polite hello.

They reached an empty waiting room when Jackson offered, "Have a seat."

Charlotte accepted, asking, "Yes?"

Pulling a chair in front of her, Jackson sat, informing, "I just had an interesting conversation with Auggie." Confused, she listened as he continued, "It seems he's had some help keeping up with the books."

Taking a breath, Charlotte asked, "You're not mad are you?"

Smiling wide, he assured, "No, I'm not mad."

Nodding, she said, "Okay. So?"

"So, I would like to offer you the job."

"The job?"

Jackson nodded at her clarifying, "The Dog House needs a manager. I'm not sure what your plans are but from what Auggie says they include staying here. So, if you wouldn't mind taking a business course or two and you think you could put up with him every night, I'm offering you the job."

Charlotte didn't know what to say exactly but it was for sure a, "Yes," that came out of her mouth.

Another smile and a happy nod proceeded Jackson saying, "I'll meet you there Monday around noon and we can go over the details."

"Okay, thank you," Charlotte appreciated.

As Jackson stood up, he imparted, "Welcome to the family Charlotte."

Nodding back at him with a smile of her own, she wa
tched him walk out.

As Charlotte
sat by herself, thinking, she had spent so much of her life unattached to anything or anyone. It is amazing what happens when you open your heart a little. It makes it nearly impossible to stop letting people in at that point. After years of thinking she was content with no sense of family, she now had two.

~

Sitting at the dining room table with Emerson, Auggie thought dinner with Charlotte's family was going well, until it was over and it was just the two of them behind a closed door.

Emerson had a stern expression on his face as he cleared his throat, "What are your intentions with my daughter?"

This was a situational first for Auggie. Not only being questioned by someone's father but this was Emerson. He'd grown up hearing the stories of Emerson, Jacks, Ren and Hert as teenagers and he'd known
friendly, easygoing Emerson for years. Although Auggie knew this was important, it was a little hard to take him seriously, now that Emerson was 'Mr. Roberts' standing in front of him, questioning his intentions.

Sitting up straight in his chair, Auggie replied, "I intend to love her for the rest of my life."